1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of cooking and, more particularly, to a lighting system employed in a cooking appliance.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many cooking appliances incorporating oven cavities are provided with doors including transparent portions which enable a user to view the progress of a cooking operation without requiring the door to be opened, thereby avoiding the consequential loss of heat. In addition, it is commonplace for the cooking appliance to include a light in the oven cavity to enable the oven cavity to be selectively illuminated in order to enhance the user's ability to accurately view the food being cooked. Typically, one or more fixed lights are provided in an oven cavity for this purpose, with a control panel of the cooking appliance including a button or switch for selectively turning the light(s) on or off.
Although the shape and structure of lighting units used in oven cavities of cooking appliances can vary, particularly depending on the size and configuration of a given oven cavity, each lighting unit or fixture employed has a set intensity level determined by the appliance manufacturer. Therefore, consumers are not able to alter the available light intensity, at least unless the appliance includes electrical circuitry enabling the lighting unit to receive adjustable current levels. Instead, essentially universally, a consumer will make a purchase based on other characteristics of the appliance and the available lighting intensity is not a variable option. For manufacturers, altering the available level of illumination in an oven cavity has meant employing different lighting fixtures. As the need to have different lighting fixtures available for a given assembly line is not particularly economical, manufacturers have simply predetermined a reasonable intensity for a given oven cavity and used a set lighting fixture to achieve that single level of illumination. Unfortunately, such an arrangement provides for only limited design flexibility and lacks any versatility without adding considerably to the overall cost of the appliance.